BILL ANALYSIS
SB 580 (Lewis)
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON Public Safety
Senator John Vasconcellos, Chair S
1999-2000 Regular Session B
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SB 580 (Lewis)
As IntroducedFebruary 23, 1999
Hearing date: March 23, 1999
PenalCode
AA:br
STALKING: VICTIM NOTIFICATION; CONDITIONS OF PAROLE
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: None
Support: Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau; Adult
Entertainment Industry Education Fund
Opposition:California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
KEY ISSUES
SHOULD VICTIMS OF STALKING BE NOTIFIED OF ANY CHANGE IN THE
PAROLE STATUS OR LOCATION OF THEIR OFFENDER?
SHOULD CUSTODIAL AGENTS, AS SPECIFIED, BE REQUIRED TO MAKE
"ALL REASONABLE ATTEMPTS" TO LOCATE STALKING OR FELONY
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS WHO HAVE REQUESTED NOTIFICATION
BUT FOR WHOM A CURRENT ADDRESS OR PHONE NUMBER IS NOT
AVAILABLE?
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SHOULD VICTIMS BE IDENTIFIED IN ABSTRACTS OF JUDGMENT TO
FACILITATE NOTIFICATION, AS SPECIFIED?
(CONTINUED)
SHOULD SPECIFIED CONDITIONS OF PAROLE BE IMPOSED ON PERSONS
CONVICTED OF OFFENSES INVOLVING STALKING AT THE REQUEST OF
A VICTIM?
SHOULD THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS BE REQUIRED TO NOTIFY
LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT WHEN PERSONS CONVICTED OF STALKING
ARE RELEASED ON PAROLE?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to 1) require that victims of
stalking are notified of any change in the parole status or
location of their offender; 2) require custodial agents to
make "reasonable attempts" to locate stalking or felony
domestic violence victims who have requested notification
but for whom a current address or phone number is not
available; 3)require that victims be identified in
abstracts of judgment to facilitate notification, as
specified; 4) impose, at the request of a victim, specified
conditions of parole on persons convicted of offenses
involving stalking; and 5) require the Department of
Corrections to notify local law enforcement when persons
convicted of stalking are released on parole.
Notification to Victims of Offender's Release from Custody :
Current law generally requires that victims of
stalking or felony domestic violence receive at least
15 days' notice that the person who stalked or
assaulted them is about to be released from
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custody.<1>
This bill would extend the scope of this notification
to include "any change in the parole status or parole
location of the convicted person . . . ."
Current law expressly provides that "the duty to keep
the Department of Corrections or county sheriff
informed of a current mailing address and telephone
number shall remain with the victim."<2>
This bill would additionally require the appropriate
custodial agent of the above-enumerated offenders to
"make all reasonable attempts to locate a person who
has requested notification but whose address and
telephone number are incorrect or not current."
This bill also would require courts to "identify the
victims of the offense in the abstract of judgment and
. . . include information, such as the victim's
address and telephone number, to permit contacting
the victim" . . . "[I]n order to permit the
identification of and contact with victims in the
future for purposes of notification and prohibition of
contact under sections 646.92 and 3053.3 . . . ."
Mandatory Conditions of Parole :
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<1> "The Department of Corrections, county sheriff, or
director of the local department of corrections shall give
notice not less than 15 days prior to the release from the
state prison or a county jail of any person who is
convicted of violating Section 646.9 or convicted of a
felony offense involving domestic violence, as defined in
Section 6211 of the Family Code, to any person the court
identifies as a victim of the offense, a family member of
the victim, or a witness to the offense by telephone and
certified mail at his or her last known address, upon
request." (Penal Code 646.92(a).)
<2> Id.
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Current law requires that the following conditions of
parole be imposed on certain stalking and domestic
violence offenders if requested by a victim:
Compliance with a protective order
enjoining the parolee from threatening,
stalking, sexually abusing, harassing, or
taking further violent acts against the
victim and, if appropriate, compliance
with any or all of the following:
(1) An order prohibiting the parolee
from having personal, telephonic,
electronic, media, or written contact with
the victim.
(2) An order prohibiting the parolee
from coming within at least 100 yards of
the victim or the victim's residence or
workplace.
(3) An order excluding the parolee
from the victim's residence.(emphasis
added)<3>
Current law authorizes the parole authority to impose
specified batterer program requirements on the same
category of offenders as a condition of parole.<4>
This bill would require that the following conditions
of parole be imposed on a person "released from prison
for an offense involving stalking if requested by a
victim, or the victim's parent or legal guardian if
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<3> Penal Code 3053.2(a), which with respect to victims
applies to "the victim, or the victim's parent or legal
guardian if the victim is a minor." With respect to
offenders, this section applies to "a person released from
prison for an offense involving threatening, stalking,
sexually abusing, harassing, or violent acts in which the
victim is a person specified in Section 6211 of the Family
Code . . . ." (Id.)
<4> Penal Code 3053.2(b).
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the victim is a minor:
(1) Compliance with a protective order
enjoining the parolee from threatening,
stalking, or harassing the victim.
(2) An order prohibiting the parolee from
having personal, telephonic, electronic,
media, or written contact with the victim.
(3) An order prohibiting the parolee from
coming within at least 35 miles of the
victim or the victim's residence or
workplace.
Notification to Local Law Enforcement of Offender's Release
from Custody :
Current law generally requires the Department of
Corrections to notify local law enforcement when
persons who have been convicted of certain violent
felonies are about to be paroled into a community.<5>
This bill also would require the parole authority to
notify the local law enforcement officials when any
person convicted of one of the above-described
offenses is released within the jurisdiction of the
official, including the name and contact information
concerning the victim.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
The author states:
CDC tracks an inmate based upon the most
serious crime for which the inmate was
convicted - and stalking is rarely the most
serious crime for which an inmate is
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<5> Penal Code 3058.6; see also Penal Code 3058.5 and
3058.7.
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incarcerated. There are provisions in law
which are helpful in protecting victims of
domestic violence, including stalking if it
is part of a domestic violence profile, but
not stalking in general. This bill would
protect victims from stalking associated not
only with domestic violence, but also
stalking by disgruntled employees, obsessed
strangers, celebrity fanatics, etc. It would
require better tracking of stalkers
regardless of other crimes for which they may
be serving time concurrently, better
notification of stalking victims (who are
more likely to be repeat victims of the same
perpetrator than most crime victims), and
conditions of parole to help keep convicted
stalkers who have been released from custody
away from their former victims.
2. Inclusion of Victim Information in the Abstract of
Judgment
As currently drafted, this bill would require courts to
include the name, address and telephone number of a victim
in an abstract of judgment to facilitate victim
notification of an offender's whereabouts. However,
because an abstract of judgment generally is a
publicly-accessible document, this provision may
inadvertently put a victim at further risk by making their
addresses and telephone numbers public.
For this reason, the author and/or the Committee may wish
to delete this provision from the bill and employ an
alternative method for ensuring that custodial or paroling
agencies receive appropriate victim information for
notification purposes.
SHOULD THIS AMENDMENT BE MADE?
3. Mandatory Conditions of Parole
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As noted above, current law imposes mandatory restraining
orders at a victim's request on parolees who have been
convicted of stalking and other specified offenses.<6>
Current law also authorizes additional victim-requested
conditions "if appropriate."
This bill would mandate, at a victim's request, the
following conditions of parole on persons released from
prison for an offense involving stalking:
(1) Compliance with a protective order
enjoining the parolee from threatening,
stalking, or harassing the victim.
(2) An order prohibiting the parolee from
having personal, telephonic, electronic,
media, or written contact with the victim.
(3) An order prohibiting the parolee from
coming within at least 35 miles of the victim
or the victim's residence or workplace.
The protective order delineated in (1) already exists in
current law (Penal Code section 3053.2(a)). The victim
contact provision in (2) is authorized under current law
"if appropriate; (Id.)" this bill would make this latter
condition of parole mandatory at a victim's request.
4. Geographic Restriction
The geographic restriction in (3) is not available to
victims of stalkers under current law; however, current law
does authorize "[a]n order prohibiting the parolee from
coming within at least 100 yards of the victim or the
victim's residence or workplace." (Penal Code section
3053.2(a))
The 35-mile restriction proposed by this bill has some
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<6> The Department of Corrections currently has
approximately 100 inmates whose commitment offense involved
stalking.
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precedent in current law. Penal Code section 3003 imposes,
if requested by a victim, a 35-mile restriction from the
actual residence of a victim of, or a witness to, a violent
felony, as specified, if the Board of Prison Terms (BPT) or
the Department of Corrections (CDC) "finds that there is a
need to protect the life, safety, or well-being of a victim
or witness." (Penal Code section 3003(f))
Arguably, there may be instances where a parolee's best
employment and housing opportunities might fall within this
35-mile area and, due to the particular circumstances and
nature of the offense, placing an offender closer than at
least 35 miles away would pose no more than a de minimis
risk to a victim. The author submits, however, that the
unique nature of the crime of felony stalking<7> -
including its focus on a particular, as opposed to a
random, victim -- makes the 35-mile restriction proposed by
this bill necessary and appropriate. The author also
argues that lowering this proposed mileage restriction
would risk pinpointing a victim's location, which would
work against the intended design of the parole
condition.<8>
IS THE 35-MILE RESTRICTION PROPOSED BY THIS BILL
APPROPRIATE FOR PAROLEES WHO HAVE COMMITTED OFFENSES
INVOLVING STALKING?
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<7> A first-time stalking crime in the absence of a
restraining order violation is a misdemeanor; stalking
becomes a felony only once it occurs in violation of a
restraining order or is a repeat stalking offense. (Penal
Code 646.9.)
<8> The bill's current language, requiring an "order
prohibiting the parolee from coming within at least 35
miles of the victim or the victim's residence or
workplace," also might inadvertently pinpoint a victim's
location. The alternative approach suggested in the
analysis to instead amend this provision into existing
section 3003 may avoid this problem by requiring CDC to
incorporate the geographic restriction into its placement
order.
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If the Committee agrees a 35-mile geographic restriction is
appropriate in stalking cases, the Committee and/or the
author may wish to consider, as an alternative,
incorporating it into the existing Penal Code section 3003
as a new subparagraph. This would be a subtly different
approach which, by effecting the restriction through parole
placement instead of a specific condition of parole, may
avoid inadvertently pinpointing a victim's location.
Section 3003 also requires that BPT or CDC find the
placement is required to "protect the life, safety, or
well-being of a victim . . . ," which affords limited
discretion for those instances where a geographic
restriction may not be necessary to protect a victim.
SHOULD THIS AMENDMENT BE MADE?
4. Reasonable Attempts to Locate
This bill would require custodial agents to "make all
reasonable attempts to locate a person who has requested
notification but whose address and telephone number are
incorrect or not current." This is somewhat vague language
that arguably could include checking telephone directories,
motor vehicle records, property records and any other
publicly-accessible record. The author and/or the
Committee may wish to consider limiting this provision to
"a reasonable attempt," or to specify the limits of the
required record searches.
SHOULD THIS AMENDMENT BE MADE?
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